Day 2 in Jerusalem

Today was another 12+ hour day trying to cram in all that there is to see in Jerusalem. We started the day by going up to the Temple Mount! We went there first thing since it is a very popular site. There are many entrances to the mount, but only one entrance that non-Muslims can enter through since they currently control the Temple Mount.


The guard letting us in was apparently more particular than they normally are. We were told before we left that morning that we could not wear shorts up there so we were prepared for that, but on this morning the guard decided that short sleeves on women were not allowed. So we had to get scarfs to cover our arms... which they proceeded to charge us 5 times the price they were selling them for in the marketplace. Our church fronted that cost because it was so unexpected and our leader Todd was furious that they had extorted us in that way. But such is life when traveling...

Here I am in front of the Dome of the Rock which is the shrine the Muslims built in 670ish AD to commemorate Muhammed ascending to heaven to receive a message from God. They built it over the place where the Jewish temple once stood before being destroyed in 70 AD. That was one of my favorite places to visit just knowing the history of it and knowing how much time Jesus spent on the Temple Mount... teaching, cleansing the temple, going there as a boy, etc. We talked about the layout of the Temple in Jesus's time and based on the extensive model we had seen the day before at the museum, it really have me a great picture of how things were.

Matt and the Dome of the Rock

We also saw the Al Aqsa Mosque which is up there and had some great views!

From there we went over to the Pools of Bethesda where we read about the miracle Jesus performed by healing the man who was paralyzed (John 5:1-15). We have an man from Galilee traveling with us as an officially sanctioned tour guide in addition to our leader Todd. He is a Jewish man who became a Christian years ago and has a great testimony about how he was healed from being paralyzed after being a victim of a bombing while he was in the army. After graduating from high school, all boys must serve 3 years in the military and all girls must serve 2 years.

For lunch, we had Shawarma and Sprite. Yum (think Chipotle gone Israeli)! Meat, cucumbers, lots of veggies, yummy sauces... don't know all of the details, but it was good!

After lunch we headed to the South Temple wall to see some of the remains that have been excavated there. Here is Matt standing by some of the stones that were thrown off of the temple wall when it was destroyed by the Romans.

Here is our group sitting on the steps leading up to where the main entrance to the temple was! We started at the bottom and as a group took turns reading the 15 Psalms of Ascent as we walked up the 15 stairs leading up to the temple (Psalm 120-134). It was a very worshipful experience!

Me at the South Temple Wall

After that we headed over to a very likely place  for where the Upper room was where Jesus and the disciples often met, where they had the last supper, and where the believers in Acts 1 and 2 waited to receive the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.

Here is one of the gates of the Old City - the Damascus Gate

We also visited "The Garden Tomb" which some believe to be the tomb of Jesus. However, dating of the tomb makes this tomb much older than the 1st century AD and Jesus was entombed in a "new tomb" of Joseph of Arimathea (Matthew 27:60). It was still neat to get to see a tomb from long, long ago.

Afterward, we visited St. Stephen's Church to view some tombs from around 600BC. It was a very well preserved site and we saw the main preparation room, and 5 different rooms of tombs. To bury their dead in this time, they would lie their bodies in the tomb for a year until the skin decomposed and then would place their bones in a repository box underneath one of the tomb benches and reuse the tomb for future family members. We saw a lot of really old bones in those repositories. Kind of creepy but also an amazing glimpse into the past.


So on that kind of gross note, I will wrap up the day. I am very sore from the 12+ hours of walking and we slept really well that night! More to come!